


Traveling the City Streets

by She_Who_Only_Knows_War



Series: Traveling The Inner World [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Abortion, F/M, Murder, Not as Dark as I Planned Actually, surprise?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 16:53:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5056408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/She_Who_Only_Knows_War/pseuds/She_Who_Only_Knows_War
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another journey for a separate set of travelers.<br/>Every sidewalk leads to an intersection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traveling the City Streets

**Author's Note:**

> I actually didn't expect to get this done so quick!  
> Anyway, this one is going to be A LOT shorter than the last. I don't have as many characters to cover and I wanted to do one backstory per chapter.  
> You likely won't see any of the characters from part one. But don't worry too much.

Fresh-faced with light hair pulled back, Anna waits in the pristine white office.

"Can we help you?" Asks a middle-aged, preppy-looking nurse whose nametag reads _Nancy._

"My first day on the job," Anna replies. It's nice to be able to go to college and help other women, she thinks.

Nancy smiles. "Oh good! I've been telling Jason forever that we need more people!"  
Anna's a little surprised there aren't more people in this line of work. It's lucrative and helpful to women in all walks of life.  
"We're going to start you off as our receptionist," Says Nancy, beckoning her out into the hall.  
Anna's quick to follow, she thinks they're going to the front but Nancy leads her further down the hall, the second room to the back. The recovery room is across the hall.

A woman wails inside.

"Is she okay?" Anna whispers.

The nurse smiles. It's a little brittle. A little too thin. "The anaesthetic makes them very emotional."  
The room has a man sitting at a desk, his boney hands are clasped on a glossy desk made of cherry wood.

He's in his forties but his eyes are bright blue. He makes Anna think of what her boyfriend, Marshal, might be like one day. "I'm Micheal. It's nice to meet you..."

"Anna," She says a little anxiously. "Anna Harrison."

Micheal smiles. "Judy says you're in college for a nursing degree?"

Anna nods. Judy had been a nice lady she met at a nursing home. A fellow nurse who knew what it was to look for a job. "Yes, sir."

"Good, good," He says. "It's nice she picked an attractive young thing such as yourself. Eye-candy around here is rarer all the time."  
Smiling at the complement, Anna murmers a quiet thanks, deciding the predatory way in which he measures her is really about her capabilities.

Not being a creepy old man.

"Now, here's what we need you to do."  
Anna leans forward, wanting nothing more than to prove she can help.

"As the one who answers the phone - And you'll be listening in on how it's done for a few weeks to be sure on how to do this - we need you to help women realize that having an abortion is what's best for her, her family, and the community."

"Of course," Says Anna, nodding. "I can definitely do that."

"Good, good!" He says, blue eyes glinting with what Anna will, at this moment, decide is good-will. Maybe even joy.  
Looking back, she'll decide it's greed.

 

" _You know,_ " Says the woman on the other end of the phone, " _I think maybe keeping my baby will be better._ "  
"I guess it would," Says Nancy, "All the sleepless nights, arguments with your husband and the bills that will inevitably pile up. But it'll be worth it, right?"

Anna can hear the hesitation when the woman says, " _Of course it will..._ "

"Oh lord," Says Nancy. "You aren't married, are you?"

" _N-no ma'am._ "

"Well, you're going to have a hard time getting married if you keep that fetus inside of you. Men don't like women who have parasites, after all."

" _Parasite?_ "

"Yes, they make you fat, feed off of you, and even drain your energy!" Worry colours Nancy's voice. "How are you going to work when you're tired and hungry all the time?"

Anna nods her assent. She agrees. This woman, working two jobs and trying to get through college, is better off waiting to have a family. 

 

"Anna!" Cries Nancy over a screaming woman. "A little help here?"

Anna pushes away from her desk and makes a mad dash back to the operation room. "What is it? What can I do?"

"Hold her down!" Nancy's hands are bloody, the woman is bloody.

Anna does what she's told, hands pressing down on the shoulders of the thrashing woman. "What's wrong with her?"

Nancy doesn't respond for several minutes and Anna thinks she's concentrating before she finally says, "My curette missed. And I can't find the problem. Go call an ambulance."

Running back down the hall, trying to block out the screams of the woman, Anna makes a dive for the phone. Her fingers are slippery with blood, although how it got there, she isn't sure.

 

"Poor woman," Says Michael.  
Anna feels awful. Has felt terrible since she watched the ambulance take the woman away. "These things happen," He says, voice soft with compassion.

"We should give her a refund," Says Anna. "We botched it."

Michael stands abruptly. "No," He says. "No refunds." He firmly settles the file of the woman, Kimberley Asmit, into Anna's trembling hands. "But you are going to shred these."

"But we almost killed her!"

"And she chose to have an abortion. It isn't our problem now."

 

"I want you to put the parts back together," Says Hannah. "I'm sick of looking at them."

Anna nods slowly as she accepts the container. She's already gloved up and scrubbed down so all that's left is to do her job.  
Easing the parts out of the container is simple. A limb goes against the trunk here, an arm goes against the shoulder there.  
Anna feels accomplished when she's put the fetus back together.

Until she really looks at it.

There's all sorts of fluid around the bright red little creature, features contorted in an expression that might be a cry. Fingers, so small that Anna wonders what they would have looked like given the chance to have grasped her finger.

Anna realizes that this is more than a parasite.

 

"Take this to the lady in 2B," Says Nancy, shoving a small plastic baggy into Anna's hands.  
Anna strolls down the hall but cannot even bear to touch the doorknob. The woman on the other side is screaming and wailing in an almost animalistic way.  
The words, " _My baby! Give me back my baby!_ " Are heard over and over.

 

"I don't know if I'm doing the right thing," She tells Marshal over coffee the next day. "I see all these women that are so, so happy. I've even met and helped some of these women. But why do the majority always leave in such bad shape?"

Marshal shrugs. "Maybe it's the anaesthetic?"

Anna wishes that were so, "We hired one only two weeks ago."

Marshal is quiet for a long time. "Anna, maybe you should quit. You don't look happy. You don't sound happy. And if you think it's not right, you should stop doing it."

 

Anna is staring at more paperwork. But she isn't really interested in filling it out. No, she's still turning the conversation with Marshal over and over in her head.

"No," Says Nancy. "Because they'll sue and then the State will look in on us and then we'll get fined."

"So then we shred her records and say we've had an anesthesiologist the whole time."

There's a long pause and Anna suddenly feels a prickle of awareness.

"Anna?"

"Yes, Mister Olten?"

"We need you to help with something in the back."

She stands, ignoring Michael's eyes on her as they trail back the room. Before she can go in, he grabs her arm. "This is quite simple. Just act normal and administer anaesthetic."

Anna blinks. "What happened to Freddy?"

Michael shakes his head, "He wanted a raise and we couldn't give it."

Anna wants to argue. Because they make way more money than Mr. Olten is admitting to.  
She nods and he opens the door to a woman who is sitting anxiously on the table.

 

It went very wrong very fast. The woman started writhing and Michael calmly told her to try to stay still. That it was too late now and she'd just have to grin and bear it.  
Then the writhing turned into a full out seizure.  
"Call an ambulance!" Says Nancy.  
Anna immediately stops administration of the anaesthetic and makes a mad dash to the phone, but Micheal blocks her. "No calls."

Anna's heart skips what might be a beat. Maybe two. "What?"

"No calls. They'll put us on the news and we'll be in trouble."

"We'll be in even more trouble is she dies!" Yells Anna.

"Do you want to go to prison?" He asks. "Do you want your entire family to know what you've been doing?"

Anna knows her sister will cry. Marshal will frown, but he knew already, what her job entailed. But her church family? Her small town?

"Damn it, Michael! Let her call! We can't have a death here! We'll just figure it out!"

 

Anna quits the next day when she finds that the woman didn't make it to the hospital in time.

 

When _they_ show up on her doorstep, Anna has already come to terms with what she's done. Is happy she never had to witness the darkest part of the trade.  
But she helped kill a woman. Encouraged the maiming of a handful of others.

"We won't send you to jail on two conditions," Says Agent Konst. "You testify to the hazardous and unclean environment."  
Anna would have done that even if they were to lessen her prison sentence.  
"And go on a little trip to patch up some of our men."

"A trip?"

Konst smiles and Anna's skin crawls. "It'll only take a few months. Not very long at all."

Anna agrees. It's the least she can do to atone.


End file.
